Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to edge computing over networks, and more particularly, to proximity-empowered edge computing over mobile networks.
Description of the Related Art
Recently, there has been a surge in data traffic on LTE networks, forcing mobile operators to constantly increase network investments. At the same time, as networks evolve from being voice-dominated to being data-dominated, operators are finding it harder to compete with OTT (Over-the-top) services provided by, for example, Google®, Facebook®, etc. To avoid being reduced to bit-pipes, different platforms have been employed to enable a newer generation of applications and services over mobile networks.
Mobile-edge Computing (MEC) provides a new revenue stream for operators by allowing them to open their Radio Access Network (RAN) edge to authorized third-party service providers. Specifically. MEC platforms provides cloud-computing capabilities at the edge of Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks. Such platforms enable application developers to flexibly and rapidly deploy innovative services for both consumer and enterprise segments. By providing services in close proximity to the users, the services can leverage the high-bandwidth and low-latency along with access to real time radio network information, such as subscriber location, cell load etc. Some categories of services that may be enabled by MEC platforms include consumer-based services, enterprise services, and network performance services.
Conventional LTE network architecture limits the placement of cloudlets or compute servers close to or within a Radio Access Network (RAN). The primary reason for this limitation is that the user traffic is carried over General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol (GTP) based User Datagram Protocol (UDP) tunnels between Evolved Node B (eNodeB) and the Serving Gateways (SGWs). Although the traffic between the eNodeBs and the SGWs is carried over IP, the additional GTP and UDP headers over the inner Internet Protocol (IP) headers ensure that regular switches cannot be deployed to dynamically switch traffic to locally deployed MEC Servers.
One conventional solution is to change the implementation of the LTE eNodeB and the SGWs to incorporate local traffic offload for selective traffic meant for MEC applications. However, such an approach is expensive requiring changes to already deployed eNodeBs and may cause an increase in the costs of eNodeBs. Moreover, it would require changes to the 3 Generic Packetized Protocol (3GPP) standards for inter-operability and backward compatibility.